


First Night

by Avee



Series: Random Bits [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 15:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9277667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avee/pseuds/Avee
Summary: Sirius is starting at Hogwarts, and he just wants to make friends, and he just wants to be different from his family, as different as he possibly can be.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> So this is the first in what I intend to be a series of vaguely connected stories in the Marauder's Era. More to come later.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Sirius walks down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, dragging his trunk behind him, when he sees a boy with black hair who looks about his age. The boy drags his own trunk, and wears glasses, and is heading toward Sirius down the corridor.

"Hi," the boy says cheerily when they are near each other. "Are you a first year too?"

"I am," Sirius says, deciding whether to be friendly.

"I'm James Potter," the boy says, and offers Sirius his hand to shake.

Sirius knows James' surname, knows how his family feels about the not-Sacred Twenty-Eight 'purebloods', and immediately takes the hand James has offered. "I'm Sirius," he says, and he leaves off his own last name and the connotations it carries.

They stop in the next compartment they come across that isn't too full, ignoring the girl who sits by the window. They talk of Quidditch and Hogwarts and Sirius carefully doesn't mention his family, but they laugh and joke and it doesn't matter.

And then a boy slips in and talks to the girl, and James sneers at the boy with greasy hair when he says something about being in Slytherin.

"Slytherin? Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James says, turning to Sirius.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin," he says, and he has no idea what compels him to reveal this information.

"Blimey, and I thought you seemed all right!" James says, and it hurts even if there is a slight joking edge to James's voice.

"Maybe I'll break the tradition," he says, voicing a hope that he hasn't dared hope. "Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

James lifts his hands in front of him as if holding a great, heavy sword. "'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart.' Like my dad."

Sirius can see it then, a life in red and gold along James, and maybe even other friends (dare he hope?) where no one spouts the importance of blood and no one says 'Mudblood' and Sirius can explore more of the world without people questioning whether they're losing him.

And then the greasy boy who wants Slytherin makes a disparaging noise, and James rounds on him. "Got a problem with that?"

The boy sneers. "No. If you’d rather be brawny than brainy--"

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" Sirius says, and he is rewarded for his jab by roaring laughter from James, and he hopes that maybe by pushing this he can win a friend despite his family.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment," the red-haired girl, who had so far just watched the conversation with narrowed eyes, says.

"Ooooo…" James says, and starts mimicking the girl's lofty voice, and Sirius quickly joins in.

James tries to trip the boy as he walks out.

"See ya, Snivellus," Sirius says as the two leave and slam the door behind them, desperate to put some more distance between himself and this boy who wants Slytherin.

The rest of the train ride and a boat ride across the lake later, Sirius glances at James, who stands next to him, when Professor McGonagall calls out "Black, Sirius," and James raises his eyebrows slightly, probably in surprise at Sirius' surname that he had still managed to not mention. Sirius walks up to the stool and the Sorting Hat with his best uncaring attitude to hide his nerves that border on fear.

All told, the Hat doesn't ponder for all that long on his head, but it feels like an eternity that he sits there, not quite able to see the Hall past the ragged brim. It mentions Slytherin, how could it not with his family, but does not consider it for very long--Sirius feels too strongly against it, and the Hat takes your choice into consideration after all. It considers his bravery, for standing against a family like his, and deep loyalty that is waiting for a person or a cause to latch on to, and his sharp intelligence that will help him keep up his grades while devoting more of his attention to his pranks.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat yells, and Sirius could cry with relief and happiness, but instead he gives a small smirk as he takes the Hat off his head and walks toward the cheering table. He notices sneers and whispers and shaking heads from some at the Slytherin table once he has taken his seat, and he even spots his cousin Narcissa there, haughty and unimpressed, but he ignores them and turns his attention back to the rest of the first years waiting to be Sorted.

A sandy haired boy sits near Sirius after he is Sorted, and then a chubby boy who was a Hatstall sits a few seats down, and not long after James Potter sits next to him when he gets Sorted into Gryffindor as well. They laugh and joke the entire feast, and when the sandy haired boy makes his third quiet comment that sends James and Sirius into laughing fits, James asks his name.

"Remus Lupin," the boy says with a shy little smile, and while he remains the quietest of the three, James and Sirius keep him involved in their conversation.

The rest of the feast and a long walk up to Gryffindor Tower (during which Sirius comments a few times that there must be a faster way to get there) later, the four boys settle into their dorm. Remus asks the chubby boy his name, and he gives it as Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius doesn't take the time to talk to Peter that night. Remus does, but Sirius talks to James while they all get ready to sleep. James tells of some of the pranks he pulled at home, little jokes on his parents and his tutor, and Sirius imagines pulling pranks on his parents, and quickly stops with a suppressed shudder, and instead imagines pranks he could do at school.

He crawls into bed shortly after, teeth brushed and pajamas on, happy to be away from his house, happy to be in a tower surrounded by red and gold instead of the dungeons he spent his childhood hearing so much about.


End file.
